Tales of the Illustroius
by solair
Summary: The great war which has torn apart the Alpha quadrant has finished Captain Nathan Rothchild is returning with the USS Illustrious back for decommissioning, he has decided to quite the service after many long years.B5Star trek BOOK 1 COMPLETE
1. Old friends and the end of the beginning

Tales of the Illustrious – By Solair

Chapter 1

Old friends and the end of the beginning

It was after the Great War that smashed into the alpha quadrant throwing it into chaos, Cardassia was in ruins, and uncertainty lay thick in the air. A few minor skirmishes took place, but nothing on the scale of the last few years. One of the many ships that had severed well in the war, and had gained a repetition as a 'lucky ship' was the USS Illustrious. Now the Illustrious was an aging, she was an Ambassador class ship now coming into the last days of her life she was heading back to earth to pick up a decommission crew ready to strip her of all that could be salvaged; then take her hulk to the great ship yards round Jupiter, where she would be dismantled, a rather sad end to an impressive career.

As the ship dropped out of high warp into the solar system, a rather sober mood hit the bridge, is it dawned on the crew this was the last time that she would be come home, and that many of the crew were being assigned to other ships, but some like the ship were ending there days here, one of these was Captain Rothchild, he'd decided that he needed a long break to assess the last few years, and see if there was a future for Starfleet and him.

As the ship approached Neptune, a small craft approached her, it was an advanced type of shuttle but one the crew had not seen before.

"Captain we're being hailed, a Commander Seven of nine asking for permission to dock."

The captain looked at the read-out then over to his ops officer, "open a channel"

"Aye sir"

"Delta flyer you have permission to dock, welcome to the Illustrious"

The shuttle skimmed over the ship and proceeded to the aft shuttle bay where it docked within the ship.

Within the docking bay three figures left the flyer and made there way to the turbo lift, the doors opened, they stepped within the lift as the doors closed behind them.

As the turbo lift doors hissed open upon the bridge and the commander stepped out, an unsettling hush descended as the party of three made there way to the captain.

"Captain," Seven said as she quickly nodded in his direction, "I have been ordered to escort you to the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, I also require to see you in your ready room."

The captain and commander walked towards the ready room, as the ships number one looked at the other two officers that had now moved since they left the turbo lift, and now a former Borg drone was taking his captain to the ready room, what was going on?

As the captain entered his ready room making his way to his desk, the commander turned to the replicater, "coffee black" she said and sat down looking at the captain.

"Captain what I am about to tell you is for your ears only, do you understand?" she said with her eyebrow slightly raised.

"I understand, please continue", the captain replied with a hint of concern in his voice.

"This ship is by direct orders of Starfleet command to be surrendered over to me. Here are you orders" she handed him a pad which contained all the relevant data.

Taken the orders he started to read, everything that she said had come from the top, and was above board. There was a clause that did not make much sense; he was not to tell any of the crew what the orders had said.

Clicking the his com badge the captain spoke, "Lt Fletcher, get my Admiral Ross at Starfleet command"

"Aye sir" came the reply

A few minuets later the chime came, then Lt Fletcher spoke, "Captain Admiral Ross is waiting for you"

"Put him through here Lieutenant."

"Captain Rothchild what can I do for you?"

"Sir I have Commander Seven of Nine here, she's informed me that she is to take command of the Illustrious, can you confirm that order sir?"

"Yes captain, by order of Starfleet command I hereby confirm the order transferring command of the Illustrious to the commander at this time."

"Thankyou Admiral, Rothchild out"

He turned looked at the commander and spoke

"Very well commander I surrender control of the USS Illustrious to you at this time."

Half a day later the USS Astex had transferred most of the crew from the Illustrious and was about to make its way to earth, for some the start of new missions and new commissions, but for the captain, well it was time for his retirement. True at 45 he was not the eldest, but the war had taken its toll, and the Captain wanted to spend some time back where he had grown up, in the small village by the river it seemed like a good plan, it gave him a time, a time to find himself, after all the madness of the last few years.

Looking round the ready room for the last time, he sadly turned to the commander, nodded and said in a soft voice that barely hide a hint of emotion, "Take good care of her, she's been our home and our refuge over the last few years, I'll miss her"

With that he tapped his com badge, "Astex, one to beam", and with that his figure slowly vanished, a moment later both ships headed off on their separate ways.

It had been nearly a full two since Nathan Rothchild had left Starfleet, he'd settled down back in his family's house, a small black and white mock Tudor building. Sitting in his garden he watched the birds fly over the woods that were behind his property and towards the river as he had done most mornings since he had returned home. It had taken a long time to come to terms with the war, and the deaths that he'd seen. Most of his days now were spent walking his dog around the rivers and lakes that surrounded his village, or working on hi selection of boats that he had started to collect many years ago, but never had the time to fix, until now.

He'd just finished repairing the hull of a twenty five foot sailing ship; he'd called her the Illustrious. In part it was in honour of his old ship, and also an old royal Navy aircraft carrier that his fore fathers had served on generations ago. When he'd taken command of the Illustrious he had thought that fate had been kind to him, by reuniting his family name with a ship called Illustrious. Now he had made sure that he had a little of the name with him, it was only a small sailing cob, but it was his ship.

He stood back took his camera and click, another image to add to all his memories, he tuned away from the cob and looked towards the house, where standing by his back door was Admiral Ross.

"She's a fine ship you have there Nathan, looks like she'll do you proud"

"Thankyou Admiral, car to come inside for a cuppa?"

"Of course, you always did make a good mug of tea"

As the two men sat in his old style rustic kitchen drinking tea, the Admiral looked at the room he found himself in; it was like Nathan, refined and graceful. He took a sip of tea and smiled a smile that Nathan recognized all too well, and something told him that this was not a social visit. The two men had kept in contact since Nathan had left Starfleet, and the Admiral always tried to pop over to see him once in a while, but this was the first time he had come to his house by the river.

"As much as I like tour company Admiral…"

"Please call me Bill your not in the service anymore"

Looking at his old friend Nathan started again "Bill, as much as I like your company I feel that this is no social visit, so why are you here?"

"Straight to the point as always Nathan, always have been and always will be, and that's what I like about you." Replied the Admiral, "What I am about to tell you, well it goes no future then this house, do you understand?"

"Of course Bill, what's wrong, why are you here?" There was a note of concern in his voice as he replied, he had left Starfleet true, but it was still in his blood.

"The end of the war was over two years ago, as you know, it left most of the main players in the alpha quadrant severely weakened, and some factions now seem hell bent to take power in whichever way they can, this information was discovered by of Starfleet intelligent a little over two years ago. At this point I and three others came up with a plan, which involved your old ship, the Illustrious, and now it has come to involve you. This is all I can tell you for now, but I need your skill back in Starfleet, but not as a captain, something more, old friend, and something that is critical in our plans."  
"Bill as much as I would like to join Starfleet again, I am no good behind a desk in a space station, I am at my best in command of a ship, and nothing more"

"Why do you think I'm here Nathan?"

Tapping his com badge he spoke "Two to beam directly to the bridge"

With a shocked look on his face the captain dematerialized along with the Admiral and when he appeared he was on the bridge of a star ship. 


	2. Old friend’s new directions

Chapter 2

Old friend's new directions

As the pair of them materialized onboard a bridge of a start ship the first thing that Nathan noticed was the design and layout of the bridge, it was indeed more advanced then the Illustrious to which he left two years earlier. The impressive banks of displays behind him and the up-to date computer displays showed that this vessel was designed for one thing, combat, and he thought the days of building warships were behind Starfleet.

"Well welcome onboard Nathan" the Admiral said softly, the bridge crew were all at their stations, and to boot standing at attention.

"What kind of bridge is this, it is modern, but I've never seen anything like this, it looks mainly like a battle bridge, but with hints of an older style."

They had appeared on the bridge section just below the captains chair, in front of them were the com and ops station, they were in a well of sorts, five stations were dotted around otter wall of the bridge, and next to the door way was her registration plate USS Illustrious, as he saw this his mouth slowly opened, he was back, back on his ship but what had they done to her?

"Welcome home Nathan" the Admiral simply said; "If you'd follow me into the ready room Nathan, we have things to discuss."

The two men walked silently off the bridge; the ready room was a room that he'd used many times before during the war, now like the bridge this too had received a major overhaul. It had a crisp new feel and look to it, the only thing that hadn't changed was a plaque that he'd had made four years before, it was within the darkest days of the war, and he'd needed something for the room, a message or glimmer of hope in the ever increasing darkness that was surrounding them. It was a simple message that had been carved into a peace of hull plating of a Jem'Hada ship, the inscription simple read "Old friend's new directions". This was referring to all that had been lost, all the crew's friends, family and others, and the new directions was onwards to victory and away from defeat. From the day the plaque went up into the ready room, things started to change for the better. And so it was a nice omen to see his sign still here, he looked up at it once more and smiled.

"We had to leave it in, its part of the ship's mantra, its also part of the soul of the ship, the ship may of changed and been refitted, but, at the heart of the ship she still remains the same. Please sit down I have something more to tell you, more to tell you that I couldn't when we were at your house."

"What I'm about to tell you, will bee off the recorded, if you refuse the offer that I make to you, I have a doctor on stand by and you will have your mind altered to remove the memories and the conversation that we are having now. At any time you can stop, and that will be the end of it

But if you hear me out, and you like what I offer you, I will re activate you from retirement and also place you within the black ops once again. Do you understand me Nathan?"

"Yes sir I do."

"Do you wish to hear more?"

"Yes Sir I do"

"Good, things after the war are as you well know not good, we lost a lot of ships, men and resources, as did the Klingons and the Romulans."

Our sources have started to tell us of a threat building within the Romulan Empire that could open out into direct war with the federation, this is something that we don't need, or can ill afford."

"We need advantages, advantages that if need be, can be brought to bear on whom ever the attacking force is. We know the Romulan's have closed their boarders, and with the help of the klingons and some new technical that has been acquired in the delta quadrant, to which I will come to later. Can you recall on how I ordered you to surrender command of the Illustrious to a commander some time ago?"

Nathan nodded, the had often thought that it had been mighty odd, normally the decommissioning would of taken place at a star base or ship yards.

"We took the Illustrious, and aging Ambassador class vessel due for decommissioning as you well know. She was totally gutted her, refitted her with brand new and experimental equipment, in our view she is the most advanced ship in the fleet.

As far as the records show the ship has been assigned to deep space patrol, however Nathan your orders will come directly from me. Your own personal prime directives as it were, they are as follows."

"1/ The prime Directive is to be used at the Captains discursion, but if you break it, you better have a DAMNED good explanation why.

2/ You're to use what ever means are necessary to gain new technology, by trade or force.

3/ None of this mission brief must be discussed with anyone outside the command level of your crew."

This was going to the extreme, Nathan knew things were bad, but this bad?

He'd worked for Black ops in the war under Admiral Ross, and was use to extreme measures, but this; this had gone beyond everything he had done before in the war.

"I need to know Nathan, do you want to know more, or do you want me to make a call to the doctor to prep for surgery, and return you to your house by the river with no memory of what has happened her today, all you recall is that I come to look at your little boat and we had tea and talked of old times?"

"Admiral, I wish to know everything you have to tell me and more"

"So you shall Nathan"

Nathan hadn't felt so effused about anything since he took command of the Illustrious the first time round before the wars and the dark times of the federation, as he called them.

The Admiral tapped on the com panel in front of him, "Commander could you assemble all senior members of staff in the ready room in five minuets please."

"Of course Admiral" a familiar female voice replied.

This ship is fitted with hollow emitters throughout the ship and also we have taken the computer design to a more advanced level. As you are no doubt aware the Ambassador class after her refit had smaller versions of the Galaxy Class Isolinear Processing core. Although this was quite advanced with our new refit in mind we decided that the Illustrious this time would have installed a highly advanced bio-neural core, backed up with bio-neural circuitry which has improved computer response times, and also given us the chance to install the first ships AI.

"Computer, activate AI"

A moment latter a hologram formed in front of the two men she was human female some 5'9 in height and of medium build, long blonde hair which was pulled tightly back in a pony tail. She was dressed in a white dress uniform waist coat, which fastened over a grey under tunic. She has a com badge; however there was a lack of rank insignia.

"What is this?" asked Nathan, with a look of puzzlement.

"This is a holographic avatar of your ship's computer, she's called Cassandra, this is the first time she has been activated, and so requires the command codes and also the codes of the captain of her ship, and that's where you come in Nathan. I need you to be able to have the authority to assign ships to your aid if you need them.

"Computer this is Admiral Bill Ross, enter in the ships log that on star date 52200 Nathan Rothchild is re-enlisted and promoted to rank of Commodore, and given command of the USS Illustrious."

The Avatar still looking blankly forward spoke, "duly noted admiral, orders confirmed at this time command of the USS Illustrious NCC 10581 is transferred to Commodore Nathan Rothchild."

The Admiral offered his hand as Nathan took it, "Welcome back Commodore."

"Computer authorisation codes 899576 break alpha"

"Confirmed" the Avatar spoke, as she visibly relaxed and turned towards the two men, from how she was a moment or two she now look lucid and like any other member of the crew.

She smiled at the Admiral, and then spoke softly "I am Cassandra, the avatar of the ships computer"

"Cassandra please could you give the commodore a full run down of the replace bridge."

"Cassandra smiled then once more began to speak softly; as she did so a small holographic display of the bridge formed in front of the Commodore, that zoomed in to each place that was mentioned by Cassandra

"**The Design of the bridge follows the standard Starfleet layout. All consoles and functions centre around the captain's chair in the middle of the circular room. The **_Illustrious command_** position faces the main forward view screen and follows the single chair style also seen on the Defiant and earlier Constitution-Class vessels. Directly in front of the commander's post is a lowered section containing an arc-shaped dual station for Helm functions and the Executive Officer's station. This forward panel, like the majority of those on the bridge, is a multifunction unit capable of providing control input and operations for a number of other ship's systems, such as communications and tactical.. In the event of an emergency, the entire **_Illustrious _**can be operated by just two officers posted at these stations.**

** To the immediate left and right of the centre seat are two standard Turbolift shafts, providing access to all decks of the ship; the door alcove to the left also features the Illustrious Starfleet dedication plaque, a traditional fitting on all Starfleet ships. This details the vessel's registration number, class, launch date and construction location."**

Stopping she look at the Commodore who was watching the model turn and sway, he looked at her and spoke "Continue Cassandra"

"**The Console's that are dotted around the bridge operate all major systems on the **_Illustrious_**. To the far right of the Centre seat is the Engineering Station, from here the Slip-Stream drive can be controlled, the Slip-Stream drive must be activated from here before being activated at the CONN. Next round from Engineering, just right from the Centre seat is the Security Station, were internal sensors, and many other security details are controlled from. At the back of the bridge situated to the right is Tactical, were weapons systems are controlled from. Directly at the back of Bridge is the ships schematic, which on the **_Illustrious _**has been pushed back a few paces so two doors can be fitted on either side, on leading to the Ready Room, the other going into the Observation Lounge. After the Schematic is the Intelligence Station, which is not normally included on the bridge of a Starship, but the **_Illustrious _**mission requires it to be. Still going Clockwise is the Operations Station, which is normally situated at the front beside the Helm has now been moved to the Back left of the bridge. At the front left of the Bridge is the Science Station.**

**This design of Bridge is used in the middle Section of the **_Illustrious _** all stations are the same as the Main Bridge on the saucer section. In the centre is the Command Chair, in the lowered section, directly in front of the Centre seat is the CONN, like on the Intrepid Class Starship the Helm stands alone at the front. Directly to the right of the Centre seat is the Security station, and to the left of the centre seat is the Engineering station, both of these stations the operator has to stand. The Turbolift is located directly at the back of the bridge, to the left of the Turbolift is Science station and to the right is Operations. To the left and right of the main view screen are small schematics of the middle section of the **_Illustrious _**these display damage reports"**

**"Commodore I have had the liberty of having a uniform replicated for you in the side room, I trust you will find it to your size". With that Nathan walked towards the doorway that lead to an adjoining room to get into a starfleet uniform, something he had not worn in the better part of two years. **

**With that she turned to the Admiral and spoke again, the senior crew are in the turbo life and will presently be here" **

**"Very good Cassandra, please take a seat and we will wait for the Commodore and the rest of the senior crew."**

** Few minuets later nine sat round the table as the Commodore walked out of the office in full uniform, he smiled at all present then smiled at the one person he was glad to see, she had served with him all the way through the war, and now here she was back onboard and by the looks of things a promotion to boot. As he sat down the Admiral stood up and spoke;**

**"May I introduce to you your new commanding officer Commodore Nathan Rothchild"**

**As the Admiral sat back down, Nathan stood up looking around at the new faces looking at him, it felt like old times, but this time he was not in the middle of a war, and this time, his ship had been through a full refit which he had to get use to.**

**"To these of you that don't know me I'm Nathan Rothcild, a fair man, I wouldn't ask you to do anything that I myself wouldn't do. I already now one of you, as you served with me through the war, and now old friends are brought back to the fold and ready to serve once more." He smiled, and then continued, "I'd like a full report of the upgrades of the Illustrious, including her shuttle craft, and other auxiliary craft."**

**First Commander seven of nine spoke, "As you are no doubt aware from the outside the ship looks more or less like a refitted Ambassador Class vessel, a heavy cruiser yes, but an older style. Something that wont attract too much attention, however on the inside things have changed an awful lot. As you can see from Cassandra sitting at this very table, the computer core was the first thing to be re-designed, for optimum performance, Cassandra can also be used off ship as well with the help of the newly developed mobile emitters brought back with us onboard Voyager." **

**Standing up the commander walked over towards the display screen on the wall, she touched the screen and a 3d holographic model of the Illustrious formed above the table. The weapons system were the next things to be upgraded, as you can see the 8 Phaser Arrays", on the model the arrays start to flash. **

**"As you can see these have been refitted with 8 **type XII **phaser arrays, in addition to this we have also fitted 4 pulse phaser cannon, two on the top side of the saucer section and two on the aft. In addition to this we have also replaced the ageing torpedo tubes with 2 Pulse fire quantum torpedo tubes forward and an additional 2 Pulse fire quantum torpedo tubes aft. Our projectile armament consists of photon torpedos, quantum torpedos and another item brought back by voyager, transphasic torpedoes. Not to mention of course ten tri col-bolt devices" **

**The model of the ship started to slowly rotate, as armour started to encase her as she was enveloped ablative armour activation plates. **

**"The armour itself has been modified to allow shields to function at the same time, thus given us an extra layer of protection, the shields of course is of a mutliphasic design"**

**As she clicked on the screen the model of the ship faded out and the chief engineer stood up, she made her way towards the monitor. The commander then took her seat and watched the engineers report.**

**"I with the help of the commander have completely gutted the warp core of this ship and have replaced the conventional warp core with a **Quantum slip stream drive. As you recall from reading the reports from voyager about the experimental drive. This is how slip stream is formed."

She clicked on the screen and once again above the table a 3d model of the Illustrious Formed. As she began to explain the theories of slip stream the model acted as if jumping into slip stream.

"The slipstream is a narrowly-focused, directed warp field that is initiated by manipulating the fabric of the space-time continuum at the quantum level. It works by focusing a quantum field through a deflector dish to generate massive changes in local space curvature; this creates a subspace tunnel, which is projected in front of the vessel. Once a ship has entered this tunnel, the forces inside propel it at incredible speed. In order to maintain the slipstream a ship has to constantly modify the quantum field with its deflector dish; however, the calculations involved are too complicated, and the time available too short, for current Starfleet technology. That was before the deployment of the bio neural computer core; if voyager had one onboard they would have had a lot more success with there tests"

**The Admiral stood up next after the engineer had sat down, he looked at all the crew present and spoke "Some of this technology is advanced and in theory still in the testing stage, as in your Slip drive, and I am going to give you a shake down first mission. The Ambassador class was once one of the finest heavy cruisers that we had, and now with the new refit will be able to hold it's in any fight. Your mission is to go to the Romulan neutral zone; there have been attacks on small freighters and independent ships in that area. Every time Starfleet despatches a, and all they find is debris and not much of it, there are also very strange readings in this area, that have not been noticed in the pasted, there was also something else we found along with the debris from the destroyed ships, it seemed like one of them hit the attacking ship, and it lost some of its hull. We had it analyzed; it has a Romulan signature to it, as you know they were badly affected by the war losing quite a number of ships. We thought they'd lost quite a significant number of craft and resources, so it came as no surprise when after the war when they closed there boarders. However it now seems likely that they've gone back to there old ways and the question is what new equipment they have developed during the war." He said as he looked directly at the Commodore, "You orders are to rendezvous with the Starcroft, a small freighter that is running mining oar along the federation side of the boarder; you are to remain under cloak escort and protect the starcroft. Also within the area is the USS Astex, she like the Illustrious have had a significant engine over hall, installing the slip stream drive and the bio-neural computer core. If you need her call here in she will be waiting under cloak and the Astex and her fighters will be at your disposal." **

**"I understand sir" Nathan said is he looked at the admiral **

**"Also as of this time, the Astex is your escort, and as such will be accompanying you on certain missions."**

**"You have your orders Commodore, carry them out."**

**With that the admiral walked towards the doorway, and out of the room, around the table Nathan looked at his new crew and smiled.**

**"We have our work cut out for us." **

**"Dismissed", as the room emptied he watched all of the staff leave and called Cassandra over.**

**"Yes commodore" she enquired, "how may I help you?"**

**"I would like you to cross reference any type of new ships that were used by the Romulan's in the last days of the war, no matter is they are rumours hearsay or if they were actually sited."**

**"Understood commodore" as she spoke softly she turned and left the room, leaving the Nathan standing by the view screen looking at the lay out of this new Illustrious**


	3. Of Romulan’s and worm holes

**Chapter 3 **

**Of Romulan's and worm holes**

**"_Captains Log stardate 52202 it has been two days since I took command of the Illustrious, we have rendezvoused with the USS starcroft an old Sydney class of starship. Both federations vessels have stayed cloaked waiting for something to happen, and yet, nothing has. I take this time to look at my new rank of commodore, now only used in times of war, and rarely at this, and of course in special ops. The alterations made to my old ship have brought her back to me and also made her once again one of the finest ships of the fleet. Although from the outside she looks like an aging ship, looks can be deceiving" _**

**As both ships slowly followed the freighter, the Astex scanned the area for any anomalies, to which none were found.**

**For another hour both ships shadowed the starcroft one above her and one below waiting for the attacker to show it self, they didn't have to wait long.**

**"Sir?" the ensign at ops called, "Sir we have just gained a sensor lock of something that has just dropped out of warp at the far range of our sensors, it should be within weapons range within a few minuets"**

**"What can you tell me about this reading ensign?"**

**"If it were not for the new borg enhanced sensors we wouldn't be able to detect the anomalies yet"**

**Nathan looked at the readings coming through to his station, then he spoke "Red alert, stay cloaked wait until the ship commences hostile actions then when the Astex de-cloaks and starts to engage, we can take readings before we close the box around them and take them down."**

**"Agreed Commodore" the commander said as she looked at her displays on her console.**

**The starcroft was a nothing more then an old troop transport, but it had found its use here as bait for a trap, a trap that had now sprung into action.**

**The starcroft was at half impulse speed as space distorted and a Romulan vessel de-cloaked, it was a Valdore**-class bird of pray. It was sleeker then its predecessors, but this ship looked like a sheer predator.

"Sir" the commander spoke cautiously, "I believe this vessel is a Valdore class bird of pray"

The ship swooped down towards the starcroft and opened fire; its shields shimmered as weapons fire stabbed towards it pray.

With that the Astex de-cloaked behind the Romulan ship and opened fired with its phasers, instantly the Romulan vessel took evasive manoeuvres to try and evade the attacking star ship. Once again the Starcrost's shields flared up as weapons fire hit home, but this time they failed as some of the weapons fire hit home on the transport ship, as hull fractures opened up, and the ship lost all power drifting dead in space.

**"Commander open a channel to the Romulan vessel"**

**"Romulan vessel this is Commodore Nathan Rothchild……"**

**As he spoke, the Romulan vessel opened up with everything it had towards the Astex, which shields started to flare up, it returned fire instantly with all phasres punching at the shields trying to find a way through.**

**"Commander" Nathan said calmly, "Drop cloak raise shields and take us in, red alert"**

**As the cloak dropped on the second ship, the weapons fire started to feed towards the Illustrious, then abruptly it stopped firing."**

**"Commander report why have they stopped shooting?" **

**"At this point sir, I have no……wait, there's a large energy build up within the vessel."**

**"Signal the Astex and get her to back away and deploy her armour"**

**"Deploy our armour and back us away from that ship now."**

**"Aye sir" the replay came **

**With that the Illustrious's Armour encapsulated the ship, she then started slowly to back away, as space around the Romulan vessel started to shimmer almost as if the ship were trying to cloak. Then the vessel exploded in a bright flash of light, before either set of crew could react, the explosion contracted in on it self, this started to form a tight vortex, a vortex that started to grown outwards in its wake a gradational well began to have an effect on all three vessels. Pulling them within seconds into the event horizon and into oblivion? **

**As fast as the vortex had been formed it blinked out of excitants leaving only a small scout ship that had been watching from a safe distant, on board the command looked at the other Romulan and spoke, "The new weapon seems to have had a catastrophic failure."**

**"Agreed, the point singularity weapon tore the ships own power source apart and in effect, made an unstable but effective black hole of sorts, a very effective self destruct device, the high command must be informed immediately"   
With that the vessel cloaked, then jumped to warp towards Romulan space leaving nothing but a small amount of debris.**

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	4. A message from Solair

Hi there I hope you are all like what I am writing, and I trust that you will let me know on the way of feed back.

I am at this time working on the next couple of chapters of the story and would really like to know what you think?

You may be wondering why I am using the rank of Commodore rather then a lower placed Admiral, while I was doing some research on the idea I had for the story, I came across the rank structure of the service as it where, I had seen the rank used in the original show back in the days of Kirk, and I wondered if it was still used, and to my surprise it was still used but only in times of war. Now call it poetic licence but I thought that black ops, might as well use it, for there missions, and that's why I am using the rank.

Now on the rank given to Seven of nine I thought long and hard about this, when she got back from the delta quadrant and if she had been debriefed by Starfleet, would she then stay in the service, and if so if she went in to special ops, because of her knowledge she had of the borg what rank would she have, and so there for I came up with the idea of Commander. You may be asking okay I understand this, but what about her name? Well within the show Voyager she had a couple of chance to be addressed as her former human name **Annika Hansen, but preferred her borg designation seven of nine, and so simple I've just continued this within the story I am writing.**

**Well that's it for now, and I will be putting up the other chapters soon, have fun**

**Si **


	5. Out of the frying pan and into the fire

Chapter 4

Out of the frying pan and into the fire

Onboard the Illustrious as the black hole suddenly formed where the Romulan vessel had once been, chaos erupted on the bridge, orders given, tactics tried but to no avail they were being pulled in, a sudden gravity wave hit the ship, and within seconds most of the crew were incapacitated. Nathan Rothchild thought to himself 'I never thought it would be this way…… as blackness formed round him, slipping into darkness.

Cassandra slowly watched each crew member within the bridge pass out, until she was the only one left still functioning, looking at view screen she saw a formation of what her sensors told her was a black hole of some sort, but this was artificial. As she started to take more readings, time slowed down until everything simple stopped.

Somewhere in space a flash of light heralded the opening of a wormhole, it pulsed three times before it vanished, tumbling without power were three vessels, lifeless, drifting, one severely damaged, the other two showed the signs of battle damage.

Moving its way through space to its destination was the Thunderchild, an Omega class destroyer of earth force.

On the edge of sensor range a reading alerted the helmsmen that something, something rather strange had accrued.

"Sir" the young officer said as he looked towards Captain Hamilton, "I am reading some sort of anomaly a distortion of space, right upon the edge of our sensor range"

"What sort of distortion?"

"I'm not too sure sir, and at this range I can tell you very little, I would suggest that we get closer for more accurate readings".

"Agreed, helm takes us in"

With that the Omega class Destroyer, turned slowly and head towards the sensor reading, it would take a couple of hours to get there, time enough to prepare for what ever was waiting.

On the CNC deck the captain turned and looked towards the doors as they hissed open, in walked a member of Psi Corps, she was as normal dressed in black, hair pulled back in a tight pony tail.

"Yes Ms Parker, and what brings you to the CNC deck?"

Looking at the captain with an icy cold glare, she sighed and spoke softly, "Do I really have to answer that? As you know Sheridan's supplies sometimes come through this point en route to Babylon 5, we need to find them and stop them. I sensed something was wrong and we've changed from or original plans, so I came to find to what, after scanning you I notice its not because of any misplaced loyalty, but because of something more like a mysteries sensor reading, and I do so like a good mystery, so I think I'll stay on CnC to find out what's out there.

The captain inwardly sighed, this was all he needed, a member of Psi Corps on his command deck watching over things.

Meanwhile onboard the Illustrious, the bridge crew had started to slowly started to come round, the first up was the commander, who looked round at the rest of the ship, Cassandra's was standing motionless and flickering.

"Cassandra" called Seven, nothing no response, then she called again "Computer" again nothing she was starting to get worried, for the console in front of her was inoperative.

"Report" Nathan said as he started to come round himself..

"Computer systems all seem to functional, but we are locked out" reported the Commander, "it seems as if for some reason……"

Cassandra suddenly turned round looking at the commander and the Commodore; she left a brief smile play across her lips as she saw they were conscious.

"Sir, sensors are online, but the warp core and weapons are offline, main power likewise is online", said Cassandra as she looked into space for a brief moment.

"Sir I have two other things to report, one, we have a vessel of unknown origins heading this was, two the Astex is starting to come back online, as we are however the Starcroft is in a critical condition she could withstand being towed by a tractor beam."

Nathan started to pull himself together as he listened to the report being given to him by the ships AI.

More of the bridge crew had started to come round, a com channel opened to the bridge.

"Sir this is Lt Harrison, Warp core is down and will take approximately 30 minuets, as will the weapons and shield. However the armour plate generators are in full working order and ready for use if we need them.

"Commodore" Cassandra said looking towards him and the commander with a concerned look on her face, "Judging from scans of this area I feel we have a problem, for one I cannot find any Starfleet signatures or communications from anywhere, and for a second the quantum signature of where we are is different from our own, in effect I believe we are not in our own universe sir."

Stunned silence covered the bridge, for a brief moment no one said anything then the commander spoke, "Sir I have a visualization of what the vessel looks like."

"Very good on screen commander"

With that the image on the screen appeared, it was a long bulky ungainly vessel with a rotating section halfway down its hull, it was defiantly a warship of some sort.

"I would suggest scanning the vessel; however I approximate that the rotating section is to provide gravity" the command said with a hint of disgust in her voice.

"The Question is Seven, would you think they have been able to detect us?"

"I would say Commodore that they have detected something, whether it is our vessels or the means of how we got to our current location. Otherwise I would pose this question, why would they be on a direct intercept course?"

Nathan let that last question wash over him; it was interrupted when the Astex hailed them.

"On screen Lt Hanson", the bridge of the Astex appears its bridge crew working hurriedly.

Captain Amanda Folds stood up and walk forwards before she spoke.

"Commodore, we have taken some light damage here, but we too have detected the ship head our way, I'd like to beam over to the Illustrious to discuss our next plan of action."

"Very well Captain, let us say five minuets in my ready room?"

"Yes sir, I'll see you then"

With that the screen went back to the star field around them

"Commander, how long would you say before that vessel reaches our present location?"

"In approximately 1 hour 57 minuets sir"

In the ready room Commodore Rothchild was address the theories of how they got to wherever _here_ was. Sitting listening to the theories was the Betazoid Captain Amanda Folds; she listened intently and then spoke.

"So if I have this right, we were thrown or sucked into this" she said gesturing with her hands, "Universe when the Romulan vessel, what imploded forming some sort of rift?"

"To be exact captain, it was by the looks and read outs from my sensors more akin to a black whole, but in the same was strangely different, for if it were a black hole, we would have been, destroyed, however, we are quite clearly here." Cassandra spoke softly.

"Commodore, Captain, we have a situation that is just over 1 hour and 47 minuets away, both of our ships are operational save for the warp drive and shields at this time, however the Starcroft is crippled, what is our course of action?" The commander said as she looked towards each of the members that sat round the table in the ready room.

"Commodore, I would suggest that we send over a boarding party to the star croft and find out what condition the ship is in."

"Agreed captain" Nathan said in a thoughtful tone; "I would much prefer to salvage her, however if not then I would suggest that we scuttle her after taken anything of value from her."

"Lt Harrison "Nathan spoke as he taped his com badge, "Take an engineering away team over to the starcroft and see what condition she is in, I want a report in thirty minuets"

"Understood Commodore" the Lieutenants replied

Five minuets later six people stood on the transporter pad, Lt Harrison was the last to step on she look round at the rest of the team, then at the transporter chief.

"Energize"

With that the buzzing of the transporter filled the room as the team vanished and materialized onboard the bridge of the Yorkshire class ship, the Starcroft. The bridge of the Starcroft was of an older style, Lt Harrison looked around, the consoles she was looking at, and others upon the bridge all seemed to be flashing showing multiple computer errors.

"T'vek, take Sam with you and get down to engineering and see what shape the warp core and impulse drives are in, I'm getting very little response from these consoles." Lt Harrison said as she scraped away debris that lay on the console she was studying.

"Of course Lieutenant" the Vulcan replied in a monotone voice.

The two of them headed for the turbo lift doors that lead off the bridge, surprisingly they opened, and they made there way over to engineering.

"Lieutenant, I think we've a problem here, it looks like the computer main core is starting a cascade failure, which would take a replace core, which we don't have readily available."

A bad feeling started to creep over Lt Harrison as she looked round this old ship; it was further complied with the report from T'vek.

It seemed that the warp core itself had started to depolarised and as such was pretty much scrap.

"Lt Harrison to commodore Rothchild"

"Go ahead Lieutenant"

"Sir, as you know the Starcroft has taken a real battering, and without a space dock it would be difficult to repair." She continued to inform Nathan about the computer and warp core's

A few moments later the away team vanished off the bridge of the Starcroft, and on the bridge

of the Illustrious all stood as Nathan spoke, "We've come from our home to here, wherever here is, in one peace all save for the starcroft, it was fortunate that her last mission as bate for the Romulan's she was under computer control. However the last mission took its toll on her, as she took far more damage then either the Illustrious or the Astex. It is with great regret that I now have to consign her to the history books. Cassandra, insulate the Starcroft self destruct."

Cassandra looked blankly ahead for a second then looked at the Commodore; "Self destructed set, please input your command code sir"

Nathan entered the code into the console next to him, as the Starcroft was shortly engulfed in flames as she blew herself apart. For a few moments no one said anything, and then Nathan looked towards the Commander.

"Commander scan the vessel"

On board the Thunderchild, the helmsmen that had first noted the strange energy reading suddenly spoke out.

"CAPTAIN, there has been a large type of explosion in the location of the first anomaly"

As the helmsmen finished talking the consoles and systems of the thunderchild started to fluctuate.

"What the hells going on? The captain barked

"Were being scanned, sir by something"

"Something, you'll have to do better then that!"

"I'm getting my scans reflected back at me; all I'm getting is sensor echoes of a ship, or two I think"

"Battle stations, the captain called increase speed; I want to see what the hell these things are"


	6. Thunderchild’s advance

Chapter 5

Thunderchild's advance

On Board the Aikra class Battleship known as the Astex Captain Amanda Folds looked at the scans that had come in, the first thing she noticed was the sheer size of the ship and that the ship had no artificial gravity, for this it had the centre section that rotated around the ship.

"What's the weapons system of that ship Mr Brownson and how big is it?" she asked the LT at operations.

"According to scans Captain, the ship is 1,400 meters and is powered by Fusion Reactors." Continuing to cycle through the data; "weaponry seem to be plasma based, and by the looks of things she's a warship."

"One more thing Captain, just after we scanned her she started to accelerate towards us"

On board the Illustrious within the ready room, and 3d model of the warship that was now closing down on them hovered over the table, its key sections were highlighted.

Commander Seven of Nine sat down looking at the ship with Cassandra, when the Commodore walked in with the Astex second in commander, Commander Korf, a klingon that had join Starfleet in the war and served onboard the Astex, and after the war had stayed with his captain. At seven foot Korf was an impressive sight, he was wearing Klingon Battle armour, and looked bemused at the model of the ship he saw before him.

"This is Commander Korf he is the second in command of the Astex, I thought it would be of interest to meet."

The two looked at each other as Korf was about to speak, a Com channel open, Commodore and Commanders to the bride"

Exiting the room, they walked onto the bridge, "Commodore I was searching through looking for communications and found this, it's called ISN, and I think it's a news channel of sorts?" Lt Richard Sandleson said looking down at his console, "it appears things have just got a little more, complicated."

"Put it on screen Lieutenant", the intelligent officer, key in a few commands, and ISN channel appeared on the main screen.

The bridge crew looked at a human, and se was from earth, they watched in disbelief as they saw that Earth had proclaimed marshal law, and that they had started to attack civilian domes on mars and the like.

"My god" Nathan said, "We've found earth, but its not one I recognize"

"Commander Seven" Commodore barked looking at both her and her opposite number from the Astex, "yellow alert raise our armour but do not charge weapons let see just who we're dealing with first, Commander Korf, you are to return to the Astex with the following message." He said as he finished typing a message into a message pad and handed it back to Korf.

"I understand" he said simply and tapped on his com bade Astex one to beam, with that he vanished off the bridge.

"Commander, time to contact?"

"Time now less then forty minuets, sir we are being hailed"

Nathan stood and looked directly at the screen, then simply said "On screen commander."

On board the Thunderchild, the bridge crew had recovered from being scanned and now were at full alert, the captain looked towards his executive officer, "Commander what can you tell me about the situation we're getting ourselves into?"

"To be honest captain", the officer said in reply, "not a lot scans are still be reflected, and the ship or ships still seem to be there, we should be within visual range within thirty or so minuets sir"

Walking round the bridge he saw the Psi Corps Ms Parker was standing look intently at the screen, her icy glaze seems to then switch to the captain.

"You have a suggestion? If so please I'm open to all advice in a situation like this"

A brief smile played across her face, at least he was seeing sense, "Yes a simple one, why not try to hail them and let's see what we are dealing with."

"Hail that ship" that captain said looking towards the young officer that sat behind him.

"Channel open sir"

"Unidentified ship, this is Captain Hamilton of the Earth Alliance's ship Thunderchild, identify yourself."

As the screen flicked open the crew blink as they saw humans on a bridge that they new little about.

"This is Commodore Nathan Rothchild of the United federation of Planets, commanding the USS Illustrious, we were about to ask you the same question?"

Looking at the screen Nathan could see that the bridge was similar to that of earlier styles of warships and vessels of the federation's history. His mind went back to the holo- image of the NX01 Enterprise that he had seen at a young officer many years before. He also had a strange feeling about the woman in black stand just behind and to the right of the captain.

"What can we do for you captain?"

Looking at the humans on the screen, the captain noticed the strange woman standing to the left of the Commodore she had metal devices to the face and also to the hands that he could see. They were not in any kind of uniform that he knew, it was obvious to him that he must be working with the traitors, and there fore his vessel must be boarded.

"Commodore under the articles of Earth Alliance I hereby order you to stand down and prepare to be boarded."

"I beg your pardon but I will NOT stand down, to inferior forces like yourself." Nathan spat.

He then ended transmission, "Get me Captain Folds, and send her a copy of that last transmission.

A few minuets later the captains imagine appeared on the screen, "Commodore, I think it's time we showed these Earth Alliance people just who there dealing with."

"Captain I am sending you a plan of attack on a secure channel, confirm when you have it, and we still the run in one minuet from my mark."

"Commodore I have your orders"

The commodore looked at the screen one last time and calmly spoke one word "MARK"

How dare he, how dare he call us inferior, looking round at his bridge crew, and ever the normally calm Mrs Parker looked a little shaken.

"Time to optimal firing solution" the captain spat his fury still burning deep within him.

"Time is…….Sir the ship, its gone from our sensor readings."

"FIND THEM!"

The two federation vessel went to full impulse heading directly at the Warship, within minuets they pealed off, one hard to port, one hard to starboard, passing along side both sides of the warship within 100 meters, then swung round to take up aggressive postures on either side of the warship.

The crew of the Thunderchild saw these two white ships move at an impossible speeds.

"COLLISION ALERT!" screamed the helm as for a brief second it look as if both ship were about to slam into the Thunderchild.

"What the hells happening will someone answer me?" Screamed the captain  
A stunned crew watched both ships peal off at the last second, then take up point on of the port and one of the starboard.

"Full stop, ready weapons, report" snarled the captain.  
The Thunderchild slowly came to a stop, as it did so the two Starfleet vessels tracked its movement, but did nothing.

"The two sensors are still being bounced off sir, but there appears to be two echoes targets"

"Sir we are being hailed by one of the vessels"

As the screen came to life, the command deck of the Thunderchild appeared, the captain looked as if he was about to burst.

"You WILL be boarded Commodore, stand down or be fired upon" as he snarled his let set of orders he turned to look at one of his officers, "target there vessels, with lethal force."

Nathan shook his head in disbelief; he was sure this show of manoeuvrability would at least clam this Captain down, but obviously it had not.

Seven started to type something into her console; a few seconds later a single bleep on the Commodore console alerted him that something needed his attention.

"Please stand bye" Nathan said calmly.

The channel went to standby mode.

He read the message from the commander, smiled and nodded towards her.

"Channel open……" the channel flicked open.

"Captain under the circumstances I would have to refuse your order to be boarded, and if you so much as fire one weapon at either the Illustrious or the Astex we will respond with equal force."

The captain smiled, knowing full well that the full power f this Omega destroyer would make mince meat of these two small.

"Fire"

As the main weapons of the Thunderchild struck home open the Illustrious the ship shock, around the bridge crew people started to work feverously at there stations.

"Damage report" Barked the commander

"Armour down to eighty six percent commander"

The commodore could see that the captain of the Thunderchild looked pleased for a moment when his weapons first fired, but the smile on his face faded when he saw that the full power of his ships main weapon had made little impact to this Illustrious.

"Commander now"

Onboard the CnC deck of the Thunderchild Ms Parker started to feel a strange feeling as she looked at the Commodore; he seemed to be smiling in at her.

"Captain I fell…………"

she started to scream, a high pitch scream of panic, the captain spun round to see her start to vanish in a swirl of blue light, then the screaming started to be heard, but this time on the view screen, as the member of the Psi Corps appeared behind the Commodore, two men in yellow uniforms appeared either side of her with what looked like weapons drawn.

Cassandra who had formed just outside the range of the view screen now walked into shot and spoke quietly into the Commodores ears, who seemed to smile.

"Commodore shields are now back on line"

"Raise shield target weapons systems and engines, FIRE" Nathan said slowly, but deliberately.

The shields around the Illustrious formed as the Thunderchild open all weapons upon it, most of the strikes now hit just outside the vessel.

"Sir the weapons, there not getting through, they've some sort of energy shielding!"

With that the **pulse phaser cannon, opened up ripping effortlessly into the engines of the Tunderchild, the vessel tried in vain again and again to land an effective shot on the Illustrious, to little effect. All of the Thundechilds fire power was now diverting from the Astex, and towards the Illustrious.**

**"Shields down to sixty five percent Commodore" the commander informed him, with that the Illustrious opened up with all phaser banks stripping the Thunderchild off means to defend herself, however within the last minuets they launched 6 nuclear tipped missiles towards the Illustrious. There was a blinding flash of white light as each one hit home. It knocked out all sensors from the Thunderchild and the Astex, it seemed as thought the Illustrious had been destroyed.**

**"Report" screamed the Captain watching the instrument panels flicker as the helm officer spoke, " I cannot make anything out, all scanners are off line engines have been destroyed, weapons systems have been neutralised"**

**"NOOO!" cream Captain Amanda Folds "The bastards, they killed her, take us in give me a broad side, get me hail them"**

**A scene of chaos appeared on the view screen as the bridge of the Thunderchild appeared.**

**"This is Captain Amanda Folds, and the last face you will ever see. FIRE"**

**As the Astex flew passed the Thunderchild, she opened up with all fifteen torpedoed launches, as each photon torpedoes slammed into the side of the Thunder child it set off a chain reaction blowing the once proud ship into nothing more then a fire ball and debris, as the Astex passed through the field of destruction, the Illustrious could be seen, coming into view none the worse for wear, a friendly face of the Commodore looked towards her. "I suppose that's farewell Thunderchild!" On the other side of the Commodore she could make out the woman in black shaking and just kept say "no, its not true…"**


	7. Borg minds are no place to be

Chapter 6

Borg minds are no place to be

The Illustrious's shields had taken the full impact of the warheads, it had weakened them, and the shock wave had caused the bridge crew to be thrown to the ground and systems to crash, before instantly rebooting.

When the main view screen came back up, Nathan saw the Astex making its attack run of the Thunderchild, as it ran along side the Thunderchild its torpedo launches spat out their photon torpedoes in a devastating broadside attack, as each photon hit the warship a ball of fire and hell erupted outwards, igniting a full chain reaction of destruction. On board the Illustrious Ms Parker looked at the once proud ship, one of the most powerful vessel ever built by Earth Force. It had been ripped apart by just one ship, clutching her head she just kept saying over and over again" NO, No, it's not true, it can't be true NOOOO!"

Looking over towards the Commodore she shrieked "BASTARD", Nathan felt as if something was clawing at his very head the pain was numbing, as he clutched at his head and screamed in agony.

Instantly the Commander drew here weapon aimed and fired at the woman that was now laughing hysterically, who then dropped to the floor.

"Commodore" seven said as she rushed over to him, "Commodore can you hear me?"

He slowly managed to get to his feet with the aid of the chair that he stood next to him, "Yes I think so" he said weakly, "Take that woman to the Doctor."

Seven roughly grabbed the woman by the arm, and with the help of another security officer they bundled her into the turbo lift, "Sick bay" Seven curtly said.

On the way down to sick bay Ms Sam parker started to come round, everything in her body ached, then she recalled this woman, the one that held tightly on to her left arm had shot here.

"Don't try to move, you coming round after a being stunned by a phaser you may feel a little disorientated."

Looking towards this woman that'd shot here, who was she, she looked different? Letting her mind reach out towards this commander she decided that it was time to look inside her mind. Most humans wouldn't even notice a passive scan; she had to find out what this woman intention was?

As she slowly started the scan sevens mind seemed to grab her own, she started to here many, many voice in this one mind, many screaming out in panic, in fear, she tried to pull away, but even with her training she couldn't something had hold of her.

As she tried again a voice, no not one but a collections of voices seemed to form one voice, a chilling soulless voice, it spoke out "RESISTANCE IS FUTILE".

She screamed out in sheer panic as she found herself floating in space in the middle of nowhere, the voices now gone.

Suddenly a small speck caught here attention; it was moving, coming closer, and faster. Then it started to grow, bigger, larger, more threatening, it was a huge and cube shaped, it was like nothing she'd ever seen before. Suddenly she felt something grab hold of her and start to drag her towards this cube; the closer she got to it, the more the feeling of foreboding.

Then within an instant she found herself being pulled inside this cube, passed the super structure, and deeper inside, she could see beings, hundreds of them on many tears, levels and landings, wherever she looked she saw them. And they, well they look hideous they were part machine, some had machinery where there arms, legs and other appendages had once been. Within what seemed like a few seconds she was on a lab table, she'd been strapped securely in with these beings standing round her. Some had pipes come from there heads, bodies they looked at her peer towards her, with emotionless grey faces, then they moved to either side of her, making an alley way of sorts, at the top of which stood one being which started to walked towards her. This being had machinery which covered most of her body, and something mechanical growing out of her eye socket. The closer this being got the more she thought she knew her then _she_ bent over looking at her in the face, it was the commander!

She held up her hand looked admiringly at the appendage, two tendrils shot forward, then turning her attention towards her, "Resistance is futile, you will become part of the borg" with that she slammed the tendrils into the neck of her victim, who screamed.

Within the turbo lift the now hysterical Ms Parker kept trying to bat some unseen foe away, "no…. no…never!" she screeched before passing out.

Within the sick bay the command and the security officer managed to get Ms Parker on the table, from inside the doctor office a slightly balding man walked out.

"Seven what have we here then?"

The commander told him of what had just happened, and the attempt for this woman to enter her mind, which she had stopped.

The doctor looked on at his patient, and start to take out his medical tricorder and take readings, "Thankyou commander I will call if there is any change, with that she walked out of the room and back towards the bridge.


	8. Less we forget

Chapter 8

Less we forget

It had been some three hours since the Thunderchild had been destroyed in the Illustrious's ready room, Captain Folds, Commander Seven of nine, Commodore Rothchild and Cassandra were in studding a three imagine of the Thunderchild's last battle.

"If you watch closely you will notice that the main weapons of this ship, here and here", Cassandra said as the areas flashed on the model; "are plasma weapons, they also are situated on the stern of the vessel. From the damage inflected onto the shield of the Illustrious and the armour it seems there level of weapon technology is not as advanced as ours."

Pointing towards the Astex as it started its attack run on the ship, "As we see on the attack plan, you launched a full Salvo in effect giving the Thunderchild a broadside. The armour of this vessel was of little defence when attack by the photon torpedoes, it simply vaporised, in effect on the second impact of your torpedoes the ship was already decimated, the others were of little use, and impacted on debris"

The image reformed to the time index of the Illustrious attacking the vessel, again Cassandra walked round to the side of the table closest to the models.

"We saw the Thunderchild launching most of its offensive weaponry, most of which did little damage, however when the six missiles launched from here, show that they were in essence a lucky shot. This blinded the sensors of the ship, and gave the impression that we had been destroyed."

Sitting down Cassandra looked at the model of the ships that vanished; Captain Fold's then stood up, "Commodore if I may speak freely sir?"

"Of course, I welcome any comments you have."

"I would like to know Commodore why we took an aggressive stance towards the Thunderchild, would it not of been wiser to take a more diplomatic stance towards them, before getting into a fire fight?"

The Commodore shifted uncomfortably in his chair, in a way he knew the Captain was right, however, after what he'd seen on ISN, he saw visions of what would have happened if the Dominion had won the war. Earth under marshal law, diplomacy at the end of a gun, was this what he fought the war for, was this why all his friends and crew he had known of over twenty years had died for?

And the impotence of the Captain of the Thunderchild, surrender the Illustrious, his ship, and the ship that had been to hell and back in the war. The Illustrious was one of the only ships that had made it out of the hellish sense of conflict to protect Betazed. In his minds eye he saw the fleet being ripped apart, ships engulfed in flames, imploding the bodies of so many service men floating in space, lifeless. And those that had made it to the escape pods and the shuttles, they faired little batter, for the Jem'Hadar had destroyed them all, leaving none alive.

"I took my actions as I saw fit Captain." He said firmly, and then turned to the Commander.

"Commander, how's our guest?"

"The doctor's informed me that she'll be in his capable hands for the next day at least."

The meeting continued for over an hour, a lot of the time spent discussion what the plans were and how to minimize too many hostile actions; they were alone here and needed to find a friendly port. Nathan was glad that his Commander, Seven of nine was here, she'd had experience when she was with voyager. Now he would be relaying a lot on her, for advice and foresight. While the meeting was on going, Lt Richard Sandleson sat at his intelligence station on the bridge, he had been monitoring the ISN channel, the more he saw, the more it worried him, by all accounts this President Clarke was a xenophobic, anyone that stood up to him, vanished, he'd attacked Mars and other colonists, for braking away from Earth.

Also at this time he started to hear terms that he had no idea what they meant, like Night Watch, and ministry of peace, there was only one person on this ship that probably did know, however at this time she was unconscious in sick bay, and from the report that the Commander had said a Telepath of sorts.

Back in the ready room, the Captain stood up, "I suggest that for the time being we cloak, and try and find a location that would best suite our needs. As we discussed earlier we need to find a friendly port, somewhere safe, to plan either a way home, or if we cannot get home, then were going to have to ask our selves this question; what we're going to do with the rest of our lives here."

The door chimed as the Captain sat down, a few moments later Lt Sandleson walked in and looked towards Commodore.

"Sir I think we've found somewhere that could worth while investigating, it's a space station called Babylon 5, I don't know much about it, nor where it is, however it's being called renegade by ISN. However There's someone on board that does know where it is and she's with the doctor at present."

Some time later after the meeting Nathan walked towards the doors of sickbay, they hissed open before him. Standing by a bio-bed running scans on this woman that had attacked him, was the doctor.

Looking up from his work the doctor smiled the spoke, "As I told Seven of nine, this person will be with me until at least the morning, she's suffered a neural shock after trying to read Seven's mind, something that even I wouldn't like to do"

The doctor had been transferred to the Illustrious from Starfleet Medical on the request of the Commander, his record was impressive, and like Seven of nine his expertise that came from his time on Voyager, which would be gratefully accepted in the situation they now found themselves in.

"Doctor, what is going to stop this person from attacking me or anyone else she chooses from, as she did before, this could pose quite a security risk." Nathan said with a concerned voice.

"No need for concern Commodore, I have taken the liberty to implant a small neural inhibitor under her skin, this omits a signal that nullifies this individuals ability to use any type of telepathic abilities, I must admit" He went on with a hint of pride in his voice, "this has been developed from a prototype module that I was working on back at Starfleet medical, for other uses"

"How long until your patent come round, I really do need to talk to her?"

"Commodore, please I have already told you that she will be really for you to talk to her in the morning, until then I suggest you try and get some sleep as well."

Both ships shimmered from view as they engaged there cloaking devices, onboard the Asetx Captain folds was in her ready room, talking to her Klingon first officer Korf.

"Korf I want you to assemble a wing of six Peregrine fighter craft and pilots, and six on stand by, just in case we need them. We are but two ships in this universe that we know little about, and until we find our way back I want every advantage we can get. With this we'll have the option of always having a fighter escort of six craft launched and an additional six in reserve should the need arise."

"Understood Captain," the Klingon replied bluntly.

"I want you to lease with the flight officer in the main shuttle bay, form two wings of Peregrine fighters six in each, A wing and B wing, they're going to need for want of a better words wing commanders, I would like you to go thought the files and appoint the successful candidates, then bring them to me."

"Understood captain" the Klingon replied.

At 08:00 on board the Illustrious, the Doctor took a hyper-spray and pressed it gently to the neck the woman laying on the bio-bed; slowly and groggily she started to open her eyes.

"Try not to move to fast, easy does it", the Doctor said in a calming voice as he helped the woman to sit up right.

It was at this point that Ms Samantha Parker knew there was something wrong, the back ground hum of peoples thought and emotions were gone. Her eye opened wildly in sheer panic, what had these people done, given her sleepers how dare they!

"What have you done to me!" she snapped at the doctor her voice a mixture of rage, anger and panic.

"Try to relax now Miss?"

"Ms Parker, I ask again WHAT have you done to me!"

"We have turned off you abilities, nothing permanent I assure you and nothing that a simple operation could not cure"

"Operation?" she spat, "How dare you, you have no right."

The doors to sickbay hissed open and thought them walked the Commodore, walking over to where the doctor and the woman sat.

"Doctor how's our guest doing this morning?"

"GUEST" spat Samantha Parker, "Guest is this how your treat all your guests?"

"Only the ones that try to attack me" he replied in a flat deadpan tone, "or members of my crew"

Folding her arms across her chest Samantha Parker stared at him with eyes that if you could, would have burnt a whole in his very soul.

"My name is Commodore Nathan Rothchild, your onboard the Illustrious, and who may you be?"

"Samantha Parker, Psi- core p7 rating." She snarled.

"Samantha, can I call you Samantha?"

She nodded at him eyes starting into nothingness in defiance.

"Samantha, we are not from her, we are trying to find a way back and I need to ask you a few questions…"

"NO" Samantha said sharply.

Nathan sighed, then taped his com badge, "Commander may I see you in sick bay"

A few minuets later the doors opened once again, and in walked the Commander, Samantha's eye opened wildly as started to scream, "Keep away from me, stay away, get her away!"

With this Samantha leaped from the bi bed, only to be caught by the Doctor.

"Calm yourself Samantha" he said firmly.

Struggling she tried to get away from him, but to no avail, holding her fast he looked into her eyes and spoke, "No one is going to hurt you here, what you saw before was from the Commander's past, and will not happen to you here."

After half an hour of reassuring, Samantha was in a fit sate to talk, however she kept looking back to the Commander, who raised an eye brow and smiled back, this Samantha decided she did not like.

"As I said before Samantha I need some information on where we are, what races we are likely to encounter, more information upon Earth and this Babylon 5"

Samantha looked at the Commodore oddly, she had thought as had the Captain on the Thunderchild, that they were part of Sheridan's advanced fleet.

Over the next hour, the Commodore, Commander and Samantha went from sickbay to Holo-deck 1, this was a strange room, and a vast empty room with nothing in it save for the strange yellow tubing that was all around her.

"We are from the united federation of Planets, and this is where we're from. Computer run programme NR-114"

With that the room, became dark, floating above them was the Milky Way; "We are from Earth, but not your earth, an earth from a different reality if you will."

The image of the Milky Way became closer as the view start6ed to focus in on the Sol system, then closer zooming in towards the Earth and the moon. This image that filled the room now was nothing like the Earth that Samantha had grown up on or known all her life. Orbiting the Earth was a mushroomed shaped space station that was vast, and by the looks of things highly advanced.

"What does it look like where you come from? As in what are the cities like, how different is your civilianisation to ours?" Samantha asked her curiosity peeked.

"For a start Samantha our government doesn't attack its own, or bomb civilians, we've out grown that stage of our existence. I'm not saying its perfect where we come from; in someway it's far from it, especially after the Dominion war." His voice tailed off, it was filed with emotion.

He continued to talk off the foundation of the federation and what it stood for, the more he explained the more Samantha found that she wanted, and needed to know more. Her mind wondered back to her upbringing and the entrance into the core, the way that she felt life her life was under the control of others and not her own. Though should would of never admitted as much to any one, she could see something her that tugged at her very soul.

"Now Samantha I have told you a little about where we are from now I would like some straight answers from you", as he spoke he could see within Samantha's face something starting to happen, her body language of someone that had been very self confident started to wane, and take on a very defensive posture.

"What does you society think of telepaths Commodore? Here, on this earth, they are mistrusted, and the psi-core was set up to protect the individual right to privacy, to help the telepaths fit in. Now they have become something more, something that is feared, from an early age we are taught the core is mother, the core is father." Sighing Samantha let a tear roll down her check, she knew she was betraying all her training, everything about her. "They even choose who you would 'mate with' to give a higher grade telepath; love has nothing to do with it."

This shocked all that were within the holo-deck; Samantha put her hands to her face as she let all her pent up, anger, rage, fear and frustration out, sobbing uncontrollably, for the first time, no-one feared her she was just someone else someone normal.

A short while latter Samantha had pulled herself together, "Commodore if I tell you all that I know, it would not be safe for me to return in this current climate. I'll do it on condition that you grant my asylum here on the Illustrious"

"Agreed," he said softly. "Commander Sort out some quarters for Samantha please.

On the Bridge of the Astex Captain Folds Received a hail from the Commodore, it contained co-ordains to Babylon 5, within a mater of minuets both ships jumped to slip stream heading towards their target.


	9. Welcome to babylon 5

Thank for the reviews every one, a couple of people suggesting that I use a spell check, which I AM doing, its set to UK settings not USA. Seeing that I'm from the UK it makes more sense to have it set that then USA. I'm glad most of you like the story in a whole, and I hope you like the rest of it. Solair!

Chapter 9

Welcome to Babylon

As both federation vessel exited slip stream, they were on the edge of the Epsilon system, under cloak the vessels were invisible to sensors or praying eyes.

Onboard the Illustrious Commodore Rothchild was seated at his station watching the view screen and the readings on his consoles.

"Helm, take us in to visual range."

As the Illustrious and the Astex slowly made their way closer to the station, the bridge crew on the Illustrious were astounded by the sheer size of this Babylon 5. Judging by the rotating nature of the main body of the station, like the destroyer, they had no artificial gravity to speak of.

"Commander" Nathan said slowly as he looked towards the strange set of devices that hung in space, they consisted of four long rail-like spine structures positioned parallel to each other, "have you even seen anything like this before. Or can you speculate about their nature?"

"No sir, not at this time, I would however like to run scans to find out more information about the devises."

"Agreed commander, if you would……."

As the view screen displayed the view screen energy pulsed from each rail as it started to form a vortex, blue in colour, something could plainly be seen traversing through it, once through the vortex collapsed.

"Sir the vessel exiting the vortex is 1,400 meters long and 600 meters wide; the ship itself is powered by nuclear Fusion" Ensign Richard Tailor said as he monitored his reading carefully.

The long elongated elaborately marker vessel, red and black in colour looked like a hunter, a true warship.

"This vessel, like the Thunderchild has no shield generators to speak of, and I would hazard a guess that like the Thunderchild would use armour plating sir."

"Ensign Tailor, get me Captain Folds"

A few moments later the bridge of the Astex filed the view screen.

"Commodore, what can I do for you?"

"Take the Astex as close as you can to that station monitor communications, and the craft that are patrolling this area, stay under cloak and deploy your armour."

"Understood Commodore" Captain Folds replied, "Astex out"

The Astex deployed her armour and made her way to a point 3,000 meters above the main observation dome of the station.

Captain Folds looked round at her crew, "Helm, keep an eye on things, I don't want to be caught out here."

As the Astex slowly arrived at her destination and started monitoring the com chatter from the station, the first thing that was recorded was the two large blue craft that had large fins, two below and one above, making the vessel look like a feared predator. The two vessels gracefully patrolled the area around the station, as did the two wings of fighters that also patrolled the area.

"Lt T'lork what can you tell me about the two large vessels?" Captain Folds asked, look towards the two vessels which gracefully patrolled the around the station.

"From our passive scans, I can tell little, save for that the ships seem to be powered by Artificial singularises, similar to those used on Romulan Vessels, they seem to be heavily armoured."

"Interesting lieutenant, send our readings back to the Illustrious, now what readings are we getting from the fighters?"

After a few moments the Vulcan looked up from his console, the fighters have two weapon ports on the front of the vessel, they are extremely manoeuvrable, they've no artificial gravity, and one of them has just sent out a distress signal."

The three Starfurries had passed by on one of their waypoints when one of the craft slowed and started to spin out of control. Inside the craft the onboard computer was speaking.

"Warning, Engine catastrophic failure imminent, Eject, Eject, Eject"

"C'n'C I reporting an emergency, I have engine failure, ejection systems failure and the engines are about to blow, get me out of here!"

"STAY CALM Lt. Pearce, we've dispatched rescue shuttles, try and power down the engine."

"You think I haven't tried that already commander! No can do, SHIT, this is no good I'm about to become space dust!"

In CnC on Babylon 5 Commander Ivanova was listening to the Lieutenant, when all com's went dead.

"Reading massive build up in the engine core, I would say we're looking at a total loss of pilot and starfurry." An officer at one of the station called up to the Commander "Oh shit, this is all we need" looking quickly at her own readings she was forced to concur. Then thing out of the ordinary happen, a strange energy reading enveloped the cockpit of the starfurry, after that there was no life readings within the fighter. "What the hell" the commander spat, as she watched the engines overload and the ship explode in a fireball.

Onboard the Astex in transported room one, a startled looking Lt Pearce appeared on the pad, looking at him as he materialized was a human male, he was dressed in a uniform that the Lieutenant couldn't identify, more to the point at this time he didn't care for he was alive, and that was all that mattered.

"Lieutenant Pearce, welcome on board the USS Astex, Captain Folds, has asked that I take you to her ready room, where she will Answer any questions that you have."

The Lieutenant was dumbstruck, how did this person know his name, he started to remove his flight gear, then looked around shocked, where was this Atex, and how come this person new his name. His uniform had no Earth Force markings upon it.

"Who are you, you seem to know my name, but I don't know yours?"

"I'm Lt Commander Williamson, and that's all I can tell you at the moment, I apologise, but I'm under orders so if you would like to follow me this way."

The two men left the transporter room and made there way to the ready room.

Onboard Babylon 5 on the CnC deck Commander Ivanova was working furiously over her console, going back over the last few moments before the strange reading and the disappearance of the life signs of the pilot.

"Commander, what seems to be the problem here?" Captain Sheridan asked as he entered CnC.

Over the next few minuets she filled him in on the strange readings in the cockpit of the starfury and the engine failure.

"There bringing what's left of the fury in for examination and to see if the pilot vaporized for some reason, but until Doctor Franklin has been able to run test, we'll have no more idea.

An uneasy feeling started to cross John Sheridan's mind, could this be the shadows at work here, or one of there allies. He'd known that they had many races that worked along side them, but could this be one of them, and if so whom and why?

I want a full scan of that area carried out, ask the Minbari war ships to help as well, and keep me informed of your finding Commander.

Onboard the Astex Lt Commander Williamson left the turbo lift and entered on the bridge followed by Lt Pearce, he'd thought that this ship belonged to the rangers, but he'd seen no alien races he had recognized, and once he stepped on the bridge he froze for the moment when turning to look at him was an alien that was over seven feet in height, had long black hair that flowed down his back. Like the others he was in a similar uniform, but the thing that grabs his attention was this alien's forehead, the ridges, he couldn't help but stare at them.

The alien snorted at him, then spoke with a gruff voice "Welcome on board, the captain is waiting in the ready room for you"

A moment later he was within the ready room and seated looking at a human woman, she appeared to be in her 40's. Her hair was long black and pilled back in a tight pony tail.

"Welcome on board Lieutenant, I'm Captain Folds, I imagine you would have quite a few questions that you'd like to ask. I'll answer as many as I can, but first I will tell you as much as I can about the Astex. As you are aware we for the most may look like races you may known; at least some of us" she said slowly, as korf's flashed into her mind.

"We're not from this region of space, in a way we're lost and looking for away home, we found information about Babylon 5 and head this way to investigate and possibly find answers that could help us in out quest. We had been monitoring the Babylon 5 and the vessels patrolling that area around the station. When your craft started to get into difficulties, we have the ability to transport objects, from one point to another, and that's what happened to you."

"Am I a prisoner here, or am I free to return to Babylon 5?" the Lieutenant asked cautiously.

"At this time I cannot let you return to Babylon 5, however you're our guest and as such I have assigned quarters to you for the duration of your stay."

The Lieutenants face hardened; "Aye captain"

Captain folds stood up and walked over to the replecator; "Coffee black"

Looking at the replecator he watched the coffee appear out of mid air, from what he had seen on his way to the bridge and also here within the ready room, these people wherever they came from where highly advanced, in fact they could be just what was needed to tip the balance in the great war that was upon them.

An hour later Captain folds left the ready room with the Lieutenant, as she walked to the bridge and took her seat and the Lieutenant followed then stood besides her. He had started to tell the Captain all that had happened over the last few months the break away from Earth, the night watch and the shadow war that they were now in the midst's of fighting and by all accounts losing. The Vorlon's and how they were a feared and ancient space faring race. But how at this time, when the universe needed them to stand they were just sitting back and not getting involved as the galaxy around they erupted in flames.

"Ensign Hill, hail the Illustrious" Captain Folds barked.

A few moments later the Commodore appeared on the view screen.

"Yes captain what can I do for you?"

"Commodore we have rescued this young pilot, and have found out a brief back ground of the station, I feel the time is right for us to regroup and reviling ourselves to them."

"Captain I'll beam over and we can discuses our options. Helm set a course of the Astex. I'll beam over in five minuets Captain. Rothchild out"

"Captain, the area that we presently in is being scanned by the station, and the two vessels, it appeared as though they are using a typical search pattern."

On board C'n'C deck of Babylon 5 the scans had now been ongoing for over half an hour, all showing now signs of anything unusual. There was nothing there, and the tests on what was left of the starfury had shown no signs of human tissue or DNA of any type. It was as if he just was no within the craft when it has exploded.

"Captain," the Commands face looked confused, "we are getting strange readings from directly ahead of us."

"What sort of readings Commander" Captain Sheridan asked as he made his way to Ivanova's station.

"Specula distortions sir"

Looking out into space, both the Captain and Commander watched as two gleaming white ships appeared before them.

"Oh hell" Sheridan snapped.


	10. The Hand of friendship

Chapter 10

Taking the hand of peace

On the C'n'C deck of Babylon 5 two gleaming white ships had appeared, they were directly ahead of the station, and by all accounts were just sitting there.

"Commander, what scans are you reading?"  
"Captain all my scans are being reflected back at me"

This did not bode well, the feeling within Sheridan's stomach got worse, just as a bleep caught his attention, it was from the console in front of him, and they were being hailed.

"On screen Commander lets see who they are, at least there not trying to shot first this time, which I suppose makes a change" Sheridan quipped.

Looking at his console he saw a luxury bridge appear before fore him, and to his surprise they were all human. On the console before him he could see what a man in a red and black uniform, a uniform that Sheridan didn't recognize; behind him he could see other human working at the station.

"Babylon 5, I am Commodore Rothchild from the united federation of planets, onboard the USS Illustrious we come in peace, Captain Folds onboard the Astex has one of your pilots, a Lieutenant Pearce. We would like to arrange a meeting to discuses the reason why we're here, and offer our assistance to you. I offer the hospitality of the Illustrious for our meeting in say one hour; my staff will arrange the detail with your staff if that is agreeable?"

Captain Sheridan thought for a moment, if this was true and they had the ability to cloak their vessels, what else they could do.

"Agreed Commodore, we will be ready in one hour Sheridan out."

At that Sheridan turned to face Commander Ivanova, "I want you to get hold of Mr Garibaldi, and we'll assemble here in one hour, await their message then take a shuttle over to meet them. I want side arms for everyone, just in case."

Onboard the Illustrious Commodore Nathan Rothchild was in the ready room with Captain Folds, Commander Seven of nine, Lt Pearce and Samantha Parker. The tie was fast approaching when Captain Sheridan would be joining them; looking around the table his eyes fell upon Lt Pearce.

"If I may ask a few questions Lieutenant, what's captain Sheridan like to deal with, how does he act and have you any advice of areas that I shouldn't approach?" Nathan asked diplomatically.

"What I would say Commodore is that you deal with Captain Sheridan in an open and frank way, he'll appreciate that. He's no time for politicians but all the time in the world for an open and frank conversation."

"Then we have a lot in common"

Cassandra formed by the door, and walked towards the assembled officers, "Commodore we are being hailed by Captain Sheridan."

The assembled officers looked towards the monitor upon the wall of ready room as the C'n'Cdeck of Babylon 5 appeared standing within the shot were Captain Sheridan Commander Ivanova as well as another officer that stood behind them

"Captain Sheridan, nice to see you and your crew again"

"Likewise Commodore, we ready to start and board the shuttle, we should be wit you with the half hour."

"Captain if I may suggest a way of getting you here quicker, we have the technology to beam you over to our ship."

"Beam us our? Please explain what you mean by beam?"

"We transport you instantly from where you are to our transporter room instantaneously, its quite painless"

The look on Sheridan's face for a brief second showed concern he then sighed and replied "Very well Commodore Myself, Commander Ivanova, and Mr Garibaldi are ready to transport when you are."

"I will meet you in transporter room one momentarily."

"Very well Commodore, Sheridan out"

A few moments later Commodore Rothchild and Commander Seven of nine were waiting within transporter room one.

Tapping his com badge Nathan spoke again "Captain Sheridan we're ready to beam you over"

"Acknowledged Commodore"

"Energize"

Onboard Babylon 5 the three officers started to feel a little strange as the control deck of the station disappeared, and they materialized onboard the USS Illustrious.

The command crew onboard Babylon 5 looked on in stunned disbelief as the three officers disappeared from view in a blue haze.

"Welcome aboard the Illustrious, this is my second in command, Commander Seven of nine" Nathan said

Captain Sheridan looked a little ashen for a moment before smiling then looking towards the Commodore.

"This is Commander Ivanova and my chief of security Michaela Garibaldi"

"If you would like to follow me this way Captain Sheridan towards the ready room I'm sure we have a lot to talk about."

As both crew sat round the table Nathan started to tell them about the history and principles of the federation. How it all started with Captain Jonathan Archer with the first Enterprise and how it continues to this very day. Then he started to talk about the dominion war, how the war enveloped the federation into an almost unthinkable defeated, the war had been full of hellish savagery. Nathan told of the many worlds that had been annexed by the Jem'Hadar, the fall of Betazed, the destruction of the federation fleet sent to stop the dominion, and how it had been complete destroyed. He continued to tell of how the Illustrious had been one of the only starships to make it out of the hellish nightmare that blossomed that day, and the atrocities encounter there.

"According to the federation we were losing an average of 51,900 troops per month during the war. That works out to around 1,245,600 casualties in total for the war, the chances are that the final figure is higher" Nathan said as his voice trailed off, as he looked towards the plaque on the wall.

"After the war, I retired from service and went back to my home in England, but Starfleet had other ideas, and so the Illustrious and myself we called into service once again."

The figures that the Commodore bounded around seemed horrific, that many people within this Starfleet had to die in this war. As their war had taken apart their galaxy so the shadow war that they were fighting threatened to do the same in this galaxy. The offer of help came at just the right time, how could they refuse the help of Commodore Rothchild?

"So where you guys come from, it seems pretty strange that all of a sudden, here you are, I'm sorry I'm having a little difficulty accepting that you came from another universe, and just in our time of need, hay presto here you are!" Garibaldi spoke his words dripping with sarcasm.

"Mr Garibaldi." Sheridan said sternly, "I apologise on his be half, but he does have a point."

"And if I were you, I would be concerned too. However as I said we are a long way from home, we don't know even if we can get home, therefore it is imperative that we need to make new allies and forge friendships. We have monitored transmission of ISN and we do not like what we see, you here have from what we have been told be Mr Pearce the start of something special, and we would like to play our part. The first Earthforce ship we came across was the Thuderchild, who demanded that by order of President Clarke we stood down and surrender our vessels, which obviously I refused to do. They then opened fire without warning and this is what happened; Cassandra please run the playback of the Thuderchild incident"

As the models of the Thunderchild formed above the ready room table, the Thunderchld had opened fire at the Illustrious and Astex, as the Tunderchilds weapons systems and engines were disabled by the Illustrious within a matter of moments. Six warheads were launched at the Illustrious which resulted in a blinding flash, the Astex immediately opened up with a broadside attack and destroyed the Thunderchild. With that the images vanished from view leaving a shocked looking Sheridan.

"Your weaponry capabilities are impressive Commodore, if I may ask who much damages did you take from a full assault from the Thunderchild?" Commander Ivanova asked in a quite voice.

"We took some minor damage commander" Nathan said as he smiled back at her.

Minor Damage from one of Earth force's destroyers and al they did was minor damage.

"We offer our service to you freely and if they're acceptable with you, we would like to offer some of our technology to Babylon 5, starting with replactors"

The next thirty minuets were spent talking about the effeteness and usefulness of the replicatores, and other such up grades that would be made available to Babylon 5.

"So you wish to offer us replicators, and other such upgrades as time goes on" Sheridan said carefully, "So what's the catch, what can we offer to you that can be so useful, you've advanced technology that we could only dream of."

"True" Nathan said as he took a slurp off coffee, "But we have no place to call a home port, its not that I've given up on ever getting back home, far from it, but using Babylon 5 as a base of operations would be very useful, for both of us."

Just then the com channel opened, "Captain we are being hailed from Babylon 5 it's for Captain Sheridan."

Sheridan looked up as he heard his name, and then looked towards the commodore who spoke "We'll take it in here."

A moment later the view monitor came to life and a humanoid female appeared she had long brown hair with a bone type crest.

"Ambassador Delen, is everything alright?"

"No John we have a problem which I'd like to speak to you privately about" she looked serious for a moment.

"Commander if you could escort Captain Sheridan to the transporter room"

"Thankyou Commodore I'll leave you with the capable hands of Commander Ivanova and Mr Garibaldi."  
With that Seven of nine and Captain Sheridan left the ready room and went towards the transport room.

"Tell me more about this federation of your commodore" enquired Ivanova.

The meeting continued for an hour finishing with a tour of the Illustrious, at the end of which arrangements for an engineering team to install a replecator in the Captains office on Babylon 5.

Back aboard Babylon 5 in John office, John and Delen were talking, Delen could see that in one hand John was excited at what he'd just seen, but in the other he was a little worried.

"You should see it Delen, their technology is far in advanced of anything that Earth Force have and there willing to share it with us. They say that while they're here they want to use the station as a place to call home, and for this they've offer an exchanged of technology."

"I see", Delen said a little worried, "and are you sure that's all they want?"

"Well there's only one way to find out, and that's to wait and see what the motives revile. Their Commodore Rothchild spoke of a great war of their own how it engulfed there galaxy, and tore everything they cherished apart."

John Sheridan then relayed the information about the Dominion war how whole worlds had been annexed and whole fleets destroyed, the founders and the Jem hadar.

As she listened to his information Delen's face hardened, she sighed then spoke softly, "I would like to meet with this Commodore Rothchild. But that would have to wait until later, the reason I called you back here, it not good news John. The Shadows have started to attack races in the non aligned worlds, Drazi boarders are being attacked, and the rangers are reporting major loss of shipping and of life within this area destabilizing the area in a whole. It would seem they are trying to plunge the whole area into chaos. We need to see for ourselves what's going on there and form a plan of action."

"Agreed, and I've just the idea to see if these federation ships can help or can be trusted."

Delen looked on with a quizzical look, "What do you have in mind John?"  
He smiled, then tapped him hand com unit "C'n'C"

"CnC here, yes captain?"

"Get my Commodore Rothchild"

A few minuets later Commodore Rothchild responded.

"Yes Captain who may I help you?"

"We have a problem that I think would could use your help with, we need to speak in person, myself Ambassador Delen and yourself."

"Very well Captain standby to beam"

"Beam?" Delen said with a worried look.

A few seconds later the worried look upon Delen's face was exchanged for one of fear as the room around here stared to vanish and a strange room appeared where she found herself standing on a raised platform, and a human was looking at her smiling.

"And I fought the Minbari held all the surprises", she said quietly to john.  
Who turned round and smiled, then spoke "Delen, you ant seen nothing yet!"

"Captain Ambassador, if you would like to follow me this way, Commodore Rothchild is waiting for you."

The young ensign lead the way towards the captain ready room, inside the room Commodore Rothchild listening to Commander Ivanova who was explaining about the war with the Minbari.

"Arh good I'm glad to see that you are all here" Captain Sheridan said, "This is Ambassador Delen, who has news of the shadows attacks on Drazi of the league of non aligned worlds. And I feel it's only right that we should bring you up to speed on another war you have stumbled into."

"Well I think the first thing is to ask who the shadows are, and why there's a war here at all?" Captain folds asked as she looked to Delen for answers.

Delen looked towards the Assembled officers then spoke

"There are beings in the universe billions of years older than either Minbari or humans. Once, long ago, they walked among the stars like giants, vast, timeless. Taught the younger races, explored beyond the rim, created great empires, but to all things, there is an end. Slowly, over a million years, First Ones went away. Some past beyond the stars never to return, some simply disappeared ... Not all of the First Ones have gone away. A few stayed behind, hidden, or asleep, waiting for the day when they may be needed, when the Shadows come again."

Walking gracefully around the tables Delen continued to speak;

"The Shadows for we have no other name for them, were old when even the ancients were young. They battled one another over and over across a million years. The last Great War against the Shadows was ten thousand years ago. It was the last time the ancients walked openly among us. The Shadows were only defeated, not destroyed. A thousand years ago, the Shadows returned to their places of power, rebuilt them, and began to stretch forth their hand. Before they could strike, they were defeated by an alliance of worlds, including the Minbari and the few remaining First Ones who had not yet passed beyond the veil. When they had finished, the First Ones went away.

After she had finished talking about the shadows Delen sat down next to Captain Sheridan, who briefly held her hand before standing up.

"Now the shadows are setting race against race causing whole systems to become unstable and in effect letting them wipe each other out; so that when they choose to fight out in the open there'll be little of us left to stand and fight. We would like to request that one of your ships be dispatched to the Drazi system so we can verify the situation there. I will assign Commander Ivanova to assist you within this goal, if you have no objection?"

" Captain Sheridan, Ambassador Delen, we'd be happy to help defend what is now our new home port. Captain Fold, if you'd like to take the Astex with Commander Ivanova to the Drazi system, I would ask that I transfer Commander seven of nine to the Astex; she has the most experience in dealing with new and potential hazardous situations. I'd also request a transferral of Commander Korf to be assigned to the Illustrious while Commander Seven is serving onboard with the Astex."

"Agreed Commodore, Captain Sheridan I'm at your disposal, I would ask that Commander Ivanova transfer over to the Astex."

Within the hour Commanders Ivanova and seven of nine were both in the spherical chamber onboard the USS Astex. Sitting at the console were Seven, behind her Susan Ivanova looked around at this Astrometrics Lab, wondering what exactly an Astrometrics lab was. Then the holo emitters filtered in showing the exact region of space where Babylon five resided. It looked to Susan that for all intents and purposes as if she was floating in space, and she started to feel disorientated.

"As you can see Commander we are here in the Epsilon system, according to the navigational charts supplied Captain Sheridan, our destination is here within the Darzi system."

As Seven of nine began to speak the whole start system pulled away showing a galactic map, which pivoted upon its axis and zoomed in towards the Drazi system.

"Our course of action is to arrive in the system here and cloak while watching and gathering data upon the attacks, and if need be engage a shadows vessel to test its resolve."

"Do you think that's wise Commander?" Ask a concerned Ivanova, "When we've engaged a shadow ship, we've had to use telepaths to block the capital ships and even then it has taken several powerful vessels to destroy them, we are only one ship."

Turning to face Ivanova seven raise an eye brow and simple stated "We shall prevail commander"

"Do you have telepaths on the Astex Commander Seven? And please call me Susan"

"The commanding office of the Astex is from the planet Batazed; she's from a race that is Telepathic by nature."

This shocked Susan, a whole race of telepaths, a thousand and one fears and apprehensions raced though Susan's mind.

"But what's to stop her or anyone from her species from violating my mind, or anyone's mind for that matter?" she said with a worried undertone.

"There are rules within Starfleet she would not violate your mind. Now I suggest we get back to the matter in hand." Seven said firmly.

"The quickest route to get to the Drazi system is through the Jump gate, and follows the beacon ….." Susan was cut off in mid sentence which she did not appreciate too kindly.

"Most of the federation fleet use what we call a warp drive, this bends space and allows us to travel to a specified point, however the slipstream drive which is installed in this star ship gives us the option of travelling at a faster velocity then if we were at warp 9, thus making Jump gate technology obsolete for our point of view." Seven said efficiently.

"oh." Was all that Susan could think of saying before Seven, herself were summoned to the Captain ready room.

As both Commander's stood infront of the Captain Susan felt a wave of unease wash over her, although she had worked with telepaths before, however this was different, for now Captain Folds was in commander of the USS Astex, this was going to get some getting use to.

"Welcome onboard the Astex, for this mission Commander Seven you are to be my second in command, I will be relying on your expertise for this mission commander. Commander Ivanova, welcome on board, I have prepared quarters for you, to which ensign Rickman will show you too shortly."  
"Thank you Captain Folds" as she snapped to attention.

"I will also be relying on your expertise as well in this area of space, and as such I have assigned you to work with Commander Seven."

"Ensign Rickman to the ready room" the Captain called.

A chime at the door announced his presents, as Commander Ivanova left the ready room to be shown to her quarters by the young officer.

On the main view screen upon the bridge of the Astex Commodore Rothchild look upon the bridge crew of the Astex, standing to the left of him was Captain Sheridan and Ambassador Delen.

"You're to gather intel. Find out what's going within the Drazi sector, offer what assistance you can. I want a full tactical report of the shadow vessels Captain, and what it take to kill one, use what ever means you have to, good hunting Captain" Commodore Rothchild said firmly.

"Aye sir, Folds out."

With that the screen went blank, and the view of the Illustrious and Babylon 5 filled the screen, helm set a course the Drazi system, punch it." Captain folds ordered.

The Astex swung towards open space and jumped to slip stream, leaving Babylon 5 behind, and watching the event unfold out of one of the observation ports was Mr Morden. Turning back towards the room, he saw a member of the security staff approaches, as he got closer the officer asked to see Mr Morden's identi-card to which he checked, smiled then handed it back, as he did so he also slipped a crystal over as well.

As the officer walked away, Mr Morden mumbled to himself " Its always good to have friends"


	11. Hunter Moon

Chapter 11

A hunter's moon over the Drazi

A small flash of light heralded the emergence from slipstream of the USS Astex; no sooner was she within normal space that she shimmered and vanished as her cloak was activated.

As the Astex vanished a lone ship was left behind, the delta flyer started to make its way to her rendezvous. Onboard the flyer two Commanders Seven of nine and Susan Ivanova were studding the location of White Star 47, while Susan was making preparations to contact the Rangers who patrolled this region of space.

"Configuring coordinates to our destination, engaging full impulse dives, we should achieve our destination within the hour." Seven said in a calm voice.

"This ship it looks a bit, erm, odd." Susan said as she looked at the old fashioned dials at the helm. "Everything else onboard is what I have come to expect from your culture, however this?" as she gestured towards the cockpit controls, "is old fashioned even for earth force"

Seven let a smile pay across her face, as a memory slip back into her mind, it was after Voyager had returned home, and she had been brought before start fleet for de-briefing. After the long debriefing she was offered and accepted a commission within Starfleet. Sometime later Commander Seven of nine had been assigned to Deep space 9 for a briefing with Admiral Ross, while there she received two guests, Admiral Jayneway and Tom Paris who had arrived onboard the Delta flyer.

Admiral Jayneway had heard that she'd accepted the commissions, it was decided by Admiral Jayneway that she'd approve the loan of the delta flyer to Seven while she was assigned to the Illustrious project. And from that time the flyer had stayed with Seven, even after she accepted the assignment of Executive officer to the Illustrious, so the Delta Flyer had also become assigned to the Illustrious.

As the Thunderchild prepared to leave DS9 with its two passengers on board, Tom Paris walked over to Seven and smiled "Red suites you, you know"

Raising an eyebrow Seven simple stated "Indeed" she look upon him quizzically for a moment then spoke again, "I'll take care of the flyer for you Tom."

She then smiled at Admiral Jayneway who had joined them, "It's always good to catch up with you again Seven, and now its time for us to return to the Thunderchild Take care of yourself Seven" as she spoke, she rested a hand upon Seven's shoulder.

"I will Admiral, it's been good to see both of you again, I hope to see you both again sooner rather then later" she said as a smile played across her face.

"Jayneway to Thunderchild two to beam", with that both figures vanished leaving seven standing on her own.

"That would be because of Mr Paris wish to have something more tactile, or as he would say hands on, rather then console driven, it's a long story", she said as she looked towards Susan Ivanova.

"Well we seem to have some time on our hands, why not indulge me with the story?"

And so Seven started to Tell Susan about Tom Paris love with all things 20th century, and told her how they had come to build the first flyer that had been destroyed by the borg.

"The Borg, okay now I'm confused, what are the borg?", asked Susan looking towards Seven, however something within her told her she may well not like the answer that was given, but still she wanted to know .

"The Borg are a cybernetic life-form thousands of years old which is part organic, part artificial life. They have advanced well beyond Federation science, unknown prior to a confrontation with the _U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701_-D arranged by the entity known as Q stardate 42761 some 7,000 light-years past explored Federation space in the Delta Quadrant. The Borg has a singular goal, namely the consumption of technology, rather than wealth or political expansion as most species seek. According to their spokesman Locutus of Borg, who was the former Captain of Star ship Enterprise D Jean-Luc Picard, the Borg only want to "raise the quality of life" of the species they assimilate. As I myself was at one time assimilated, however thanks to captain Jayneway and the crew of Voyager I was freed and became more then a mere drone."

This unsettled Commander Ivanova, as she continued to listen to Seven of nine, she learnt more about the borg and the threat that they posed to the Alpha quadrant and the federation.

'My god' she thought to her self, 'if the borg ever came here we would have a serious problem. And we thought the shadows were a threat.'

Susan shifted uncomfortably in her seat, and then looked at the console that she had learnt to use, according to her reading they were close to the rendezvous point.

"Seven it looks like we have three Sunhawks approaching our location."

The delta flyer continued towards the three ships, as it got within there sensor range Seven of nine sent out a hail.

"Attention approaching vessels, this is Commander Seven of Nine of the Delta Flyer, we mean you no harm."

A reptilian face appeared on the monitor, it looked carefully at Seven, "You have Commander Ivanova on board yes? We are to escort the Commander to her destination, please follow."

"Understood" seven replied as the channel was closed, turning to look towards Susan Seven could see the unease that filter across her face, as she seemed to be rubbing her leg for some reason.

"Have you a problem with your leg Commander; I could get a medical kit if you have an injury?"

"No, its not that, some time ago, just after I was prompted to Commander I had a problem to solve with the Drazi onboard the station, it got a little out of hand, and I ended up with a broken leg." Susan said continuing to rub her leg gently.

"They attacked you?" Seven said dryly.

"No, well yes, but it wasn't deliberate, it was a misunderstanding, mainly on my part"

A small chime caught sevens attention as she looked down at her console she could see another vessel in orbit of a local planet.

"I think we've found your whitestar, and you're Rangers."

As the Delat flyer came closer to the planet, the whitestar broke orbit and approached there potion.

"Commander," Seven said "Your being hailed, pipe it through to me here Seven"

"Understood Commander"

A few seconds later the image of a human male ranger appeared on screen, "greetings commander Ivanova"

"Hello Richardson, I've been sent by Delen to investigate the activities you've mentioned in your report. If you could send any other finding or reason to me here onboard the flyer I could evaluate the situation and be upto speed before we meet in person."

"Agreed commander I'll be sending the information to you via an encoded channel commander, as we….."

At that moment all hell broke lose as a shadow scout ship appeared on the edge of the flyers sensor range.

"Commander Ivanova I have an unknown craft on the end of the flyers sensor range, it appears too comprised of a Bio-Organic armoured hull, and what appears to be a type of shielding, I'm sending the location of this vessel to the whitestar, together with my scan results."

"Oh Shit it's the shadows," Looking at the data that was displayed before her, she could see that this was a shadow scout; "Richardson, what's on this planet?"

"It's a refugee camp, all the Drazi and a few other races that have escaped from that attacks of late have been shepherded here, and we have given our word to protect them."

"Seven could this ship stop that shadow scout out there?"  
"Well the only reason I detected the vessel is because of the advance scanning technology we posses."

"By the looks of thing it would seem that they have not detected your scans" Susan said thoughtfully.

"Do the shadows use Jump technology?"

"Yes, very advanced however from what we have been able to figure out, as we jump into hyperspace with our jump engines, the shadows tend to phase into hyperspace."

Looking towards Seven of nine, Susan could see she was mulling something over within her mind

"If I may ask, and I don't think I'll like the answer, but what are you planning?"

"An intelligents gathering mission"

"I knew I wouldn't like the answer!" Susan said softly

"Have you received the file from the white star?"

"Confirmed, its all here Seven."

"Good, Commander Ivanova, as you are aware you're sitting at the flyers tactical station, I have a feeling we'll be needing the tactical systems of the flyer."

Seven thought back to the two hours within the Astex shuttle bay spent going thought the tactical stations and the ship board operations of the flyer, Susan was a fast learner, which came in handy, and now it was time to put all that she learnt to the test.

As Seven was talking she sent a signal to the Astex, it was at this point that the white star jumped out of system, and the shadow scout started to move towards the planet below them. Seven started to take the flyer into a lower orbit ready for the altercation she knew would come. "Commander", Seven spoke without a hint of emotion, "Tactical report on the scout."

"The shadow vessel seems to be moving towards the planet."

"Very well, commander, engines to quarter impulsem shields to full stand by on phasers and torpedoes, we're going to meet this shadow scout"


	12. Stuck in the middle part 1

Chapter 12

Of scouts and flyers

The delta flyer emerged from the dark side of the planet as she did so, the scout immediately changed course and speed.

"I think we got their attention" Susan Ivanova spoke her voice betraying her calm mannerisms, she'd never been in battle with a shadow vessel of any kind in a ship this small, what the hell was this woman thinking.

"This is the Delta flyer to unidentified shadow vessel, you will leave this system at once or be destroyed, resistance is futile!" she said with a hint of a smile on her lips

Susan couldn't believe that she woman had hailed the shadows and given THEM an ultimatum, they were going to die of that she was sure.

"Shadow scout vessel has just increased speed towards us, if you wanted to make them mad; I think you've achieved it" Susan spoke with a hint of anger in her voice.

The two ships came closer, the flyer bank hard to port as the beam weapon of the shadow scout hit home, the flyer rocked from the impact, then returned the favour with a three phaser blasts. At the site of the impact on the shadow vessel, debris exploded as if it were blood flowing from an injured creature.

The scout swung back round for another assault, this time it opened fire with all its weaponry, releasing a devastating volley of blows onto the flyer.

"Shields down to 45 percent commander" Susan relayed the information to Seven, realising that maybe, just maybe they stood a chance.

The flyer let fly with a volley of photonic torpedoes, followed by a volley of phaser blasts that ripped into the scout and blew it into oblivion.

Susan Ivanova looked open mouthed out of the cockpit window, a shadows vessel admittedly only a scout ship, but none the less a shadow vessel had been destroyed by a vessel of this size.

"Commander", Susan said, "I'm reading a signal that was sent by the scout just before it was destroyed, it was only partly sent, but I think they were calling for assistance."

Looking at the data that had been collected during the brief conflict, Seven of nine came across a stimulatory to the vessels used by species 8472. They were not as powerful, but none the less some features of the vessels used by the two cultures were intriguing.

"Seven, I think we've got a problem!"

As a shadow battle crab phased into view, Susan cursed herself for thinking they could actually get away from this in one peace.

"Adjusting our heading towards the shadow vessel."

"WHAT are you out of your mind Seven, that vessel is much more powerful that the scout we destroyed, we've only just managed to destroy that odd one or two with a wing of white stars, not one vessel when the shadows are at full strength"

Seven said nothing.

As the flyer got within firing range of the Shadow Battle crab, Seven jump to high warp for a brief second, deploying a flawless picard maneuver, with the shadows vessel firing on the point where the flyer appeared to be.

At that point the Astex de-cloaked from behind the Shadow vessel and opened fire with a full spread of phaser fire and six quantum topedoes blowing the shadows vessel out of the sky.

"As I said resistance is futile" Seven said calmly as she looked back to an ashen face of Commander Ivanova.

Thirty minuets later within the Astex, both commanders, were sitting with the Captain who was going through the sensor details from the Astex who had been monitoring the whole battle while in cloak.

"Most impressive commanders, you did a fine job acting as our decoy and drawing one of the shadows capital ships out into the open, we have invaluable data from that encounter."

'Decoy', Susan thought to herself, she hated playing the decoy and not being told about it, she slowly took in a deep breath and let it go.

"I have sent a full copy of our findings to the Illustrious, and now I think its time to get back to Babylon 5 and work out a plan to take this war onto the offensive."

A moment later both commanders and Captain Folders sat at her station, "set a course for Babylon 5 lieutenant, and take us into slipstream"

Just then all hell broke lose onboard the Astex as three shadow battle crabs appeared, they opened fire just as the Astex jumped to slipstream. The attack sent the Astex into a tumbling freefall as an explosion ripped through subspace and outwards into normal space giving the impression that the vessel was no more.

Three hours later Captain Sheridan, was seated at his desk when Commodore Rothchild materialised before him, he nodded then sat down.

"You wished to see me Captain?"

"yes, I did Commodore", he sat looking at the commodore then clicked on the view screen, it showed the Astex jumping into slipstream as three shadow vessels opened fired, then a huge explosion, followed by the three shadow vessels phasing out.

"My god" the commodore said softly

"We lost a lot of good people, including Commander Ivanova, I've put the station onto high alert, I'd suggest you do the same with the Illustrious

END OF BOOK 1

I hope you like it so far, I am planning to write book two and three, both taking different directions from the same point, you'll see what I mean latter. Let me know what you think.

Book two is called "Out of the looking glass"

And I am working on it now; the first chapter should be up sometime in the next week I hope. ((26/10/10 today's date))


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